I really like the design of the dress. This is the second knit wrap pattern I’ve made (the first being the Sew Over It “Ultimate Wrap Dress“). The Gillian dress has the waistband which not only gives it slightly more waist definition, but also means the seam where the ties join onto the dress is finished nicely, and the “hole” that the tie goes through is also nicely enclosed. The other obvious feature is the gathered shoulder yoke on the front and back, which I’m a big fan of.

It comes with the choice of sleeve and skirt lengths: short, 3/4 and long sleeves; and a blouse/peplum skirt, above-the-knee, and below-the-knee skirt. I chose the longest version but added 6cm – I’m tall (178cm), and have worked out that my ideal skirt length is 70cm from the waist.

Because of all the different variations, the suggested yardage is based on the biggest size, doing the longest skirt with the longest sleeve. To be safe I bought 3m, and have over 100cm leftover even after I had to re-cut a piece, but keeping in mine that I used contrasting fabric for the ties and yokes (and that my fabric store can be quite generous – they give extra for shrinkage!)

The neck band is drafted as 2-3 inches smaller than the neckline itself, to help prevent gaping.

PDF

I did have a few issues with the PDF not quite lining up (you know when you’ve cellotaped one horizontal line of paper, and you add the next horizontal line, and they don’t quite match up). I’m never sure if this is just an issue with my cutting, but have had patterns line up perfect so I’m not sure. I did also find that the first three rows were 10 pages wide, which is a bit much for my dining table, so I had to cut them up a bit before tracing everything off.

Sizing

The size range is the same for the Jenna cardigan, going up to a 48″ bust – many of you may want to size by your high bust measurement, like me.

The sizing worked well for me – I cut a size 38 bust and waist, and graded to a size 44 in the hips (my measurements are 38″ high bust, 40″ bust, 32″ waist and 47″ hip, making me a definite pear). I didn’t make any other changes. Like most other patterns the shoulders continue to widen as you increase in size, so if you’re a bigger size with narrow shoulders, you may want to use a smaller size yoke piece and gather the bodice pieces more. Likewise, if you’re particularly big busted you could easily cut a bigger sized front bodice to fit, while keeping the back bodice and the yokes to your high-bust size.

No gaping!

Instructions

Overall the instructions were good – as in, a good order of sewing, sleeves sewn in the flat, etc. Notches lined up nicely. There are a few parts of the instructions I found challenging – or at least, that made me scratch my head and snap at my husband (which may also have been a symptom of an overdue lunch). Mainly this was with regards to the waistband – the hole through which the tie passes is nicely enclosed (rather than the usual “top-stitch down your raw edge” that wrap dresses seem to have) but it took a few minutes of thinking to work out how to get there. Likewise with the way the tie attaches to the waistband. It ends up being very nicely finished without facings (I hate facings in knit garments!) but could be worded slightly differently.

Also, there was no mention of which side the hole should go. I put it on the left (was actually meaning to put it on the right, but somehow got it around the other way) which means the wrap folds left-over-right, whereas I would have preferred right-over-left. It’s not something that matters at all, but I feel weirdly odd about it

Pros

Different to any current pattern offerings, particularly other indies – most wrap dresses I’ve seen don’t have a separate waist band, and I haven’t seen the gathered yokes in any other indie patterns.

Good size range, up to a 48″ bust (and likely expandable to bigger sizes, particularly because it’s a knit)

Several variations – I’ll probably be making the top version soon

Looks nice with contrasting colours! I’m not big on “colour blocking” usually but I think this looks good

Cons

Instructions can be a bit confusing at times – just take it slow and think about the process.

The PDF doesn’t line up 100%. Just wing it.

I had some difficulty with the top-stitching stretching out my seams, even with a walking foot. Not really a pattern fault but it was a pain.

The wrap does sit a little bit high on me, I wonder if the two different fabrics means I should have shortened the neckband further. You may find this is more or less obvious if you have a bigger bust.

Since Jenny suggested the wrap-dress-along, this is my third wrap dress (the other two are woven). They are SO comfortable! This fabric is almost feels like a soft towel robe, so I feel like I’m wearing a dressing gown, but one I can wear outside the house.

If you’re interested, use the code TMSGILLIAN for 15% off until midnight October 23rd, NZ time (remember we live in the future, so that might be the 22nd for you!). The code is entered after you go through the paypal process, once you arrive back at the Muse Patterns website. And until tonight, 100% of the sale price (less transaction fees) goes to the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation. Woot!

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About Sophie-Lee

Sophie-Lee is a doctor living in New Zealand with her husband, cat, dog, and dreams of rural life. She wears bright lipstick and brighter clothes, loves cheesy puns, and thinks she's a better dancer than she is. You can find her at: Two Random Words

I already commented on your personal blog … worth repeating that you and the dress look great … but I did want to add that I didn’t have any problems with the PDF pages lining up correctly when printing at the big laser printer/copier at someone’s (not saying who!) office. When it’s off just a smidge on a home printer on a regular basis from different sources, esp with a lot of pages to print, try printing just a few pages at a time … or loading just a few sheets at a time in the printer. The feed mechanism in some printers gets persnickety and doesn’t always feed as it should … actually holding onto or “stretching” some printouts, kind of like “ease stitching” on a sewing machine. 🙂

Debbie, you know I NEVER thought of that but it makes total sense! Much more sense than my cutting being that off, or the PDF itself being off. And that would probably explain all but one PDF pattern I’ve used that is off slightly. Phew! I do use the laser printers at work but they’re not as fancy as print shop ones so it’s definitely possible they’re skewing it.

I made the top variation and just sort of put the waistband tie hole on whichever side and didn’t over think it much. But I do remember wondering which side it was supposed to be on. Silly me never put that in my feedback for Kat in pattern testing. D’oh!

It looks amazing on you! 🙂 I’m pretty sure this is a flattering dress for most body shapes and can certainly fit people a little larger than the size requirements. 🙂

I love this dress on you! I had problems taping it too, glad to know I’m not the only one,lol. I’m so glad you mentioned the shoulders, my jenna cardi looks a little sloppy because the shoulders are too big, now I know to compensate for it. I’m really loving Muse patterns so far, she’s definitely different from other indies.

Yeah I’m really big on properly fitted shoulders – I have a big problem with mens shirts, in particular, growing wider at the shoulder as the size increases (so you see all these bigger men who can’t help but look sloppy because every shirt in their size has the shoulders cutting across their biceps).

But yes, I’m really loving her stuff too – she’s really setting herself apart from other indie designers and I can’t wait to see more